Re: Two questions about vertical layout and lyrics spacing

[Janek Warchoł]

On Sat, Mar 17, 2012 at 9:31 PM, Frank Steinmetzger <address@hidden> wrote:
> The first one, lyrics.png, shows a page created by both 2.12 and 2.14.  Thanks
> to the smaller space between a staff and its lyrics, the systems now become
> less high.  This is often a good thing, as it allows to get more on a page.
> However, this is one of the cases where it leads to a lot of empty room
> between system.  What would be a good way to make the overall appearance a bit
> lighter by un-squeezing the systems?
>
> Essentially, I would like to make the basic line height of lyrics a bit
> bigger, while retaining the small minimum-height and keeping stretchability of
> the padding around lyrics the same as that of system-system-spacing, so it's
> a proportional stretching.

I would try reducing system-system-spacing #'stretchability -  this
should force Lily to spread more of the extra space between staves.

> Example #2, padding.png, shows a piece which has a large variation in staff
> height, because there are either two lines of lyrics to a staff or none at
> all.  As lilypond tries to keep an even system-system-distance, the result is
> now that the first two systems on the first page are so tight together that it
> is hard to make out which text belongs to which staff.
> The second page shows a similar, if not as extreme, effect; systems 2 and 3
> are rather heave with all their lyrics, but they appear closer together than
> the less heavy systems 1 and 4 to their respective neighbours.
>
> My first thought is now of course to alter system-system-spacing #'padding,
> but I have not found a way to make this equal between all systems on one page
> (except if I enabled ragged-bottom).  What would you recommend?
>
> I know lilypond adheres strongly to some long-evolved engraving standards, yet
> the described pages look unbalanced to me.

I agree, it doesn't look good at all.
I'm also afraid that the current vertical spacing system - as far as i
understand it - doesn't allow for an elegant and flexible solution.
I'm thinking how this can be improved; i'm pretty sure a good solution
exists.
As a workaround, i'd try inserting a high blank markup where the
distance should be increased (or modifying Y-extent property of one of
the objects).

hope this helps,
Janek